Get the Marathon Training Recovery Plan (PDF)
Marathon training is officially in full swing, which means your mileage is climbing, and your body and mind are starting to feel it. Now more than ever, you need a recovery routine that works as hard as you do.
Your recovery is what allows you to get stronger and faster. This is when your body adapts to the work you just put in. Train hard without recovering well, and you're not building fitness so much as accumulating fatigue.
That’s where we come in.
Therabody has launched the Marathon Recovery Program: a 20-week science-backed guide that helps you integrate recovery methods and tools into your running program.
Created by Therabody’s Exercise & Sports Science experts, the program works in tandem with any marathon training schedule. It maps recovery to the demands of each day, showing you what tools to use, when, and why.
The goal of the program is to help you show up on race day feeling physically and mentally prepared for the work ahead.
Get the guide
Marathon training recovery, built around three types of stress
Every training session places three distinct types of stress on your body: mechanical stress from the physical pounding of thousands of foot strikes, metabolic stress from glycogen depletion, and psychological stress, often the most overlooked of the three, from the mental load of fitting training into everyday life.
The Marathon Recovery Program maps recovery tools to each of these stressors, so you always know what your body needs and why.
- Theragun ™ for mechanical stress. Percussive therapy targets muscle tension and soreness from the repetitive impact of training, with specific pre-run activation and post-run recovery protocols depending on session intensity.
- JetBoots ™ for metabolic stress. Pneumatic compression increases circulation, helping to deliver nutrient- and oxygen-rich blood to sore muscles.
- SmartGoggles ™ for psychological stress. Heat, vibration, and sound therapy help shift your nervous system into rest-and-recover mode, supporting the sleep quality that becomes even more critical as training intensity builds.
Recovering well means addressing all three types of stress. Skipping recovery of the body or mind can slow down adaptation to training between runs.
A plan that evolves with your training
The recovery program builds across five phases of marathon training: early prep weeks, peak mileage, taper, race day, and the days that follow. It also covers nutrition and hydration strategy, sleep optimization, and a detailed race week countdown, so that every component of your recovery is working in lockstep with your training.
The result: training that compounds instead of fatigue that accumulates, helping you arrive at the start line ready to race.
Download the full Therabody Marathon Recovery Program guide.
